U.S. Policies on Nicaragua

One couldn’t agree more with your editorial (Dec. 23). Our country’s policies toward Nicaragua have been dependent only on military solutions that have all failed.

The Administration’s support of the contras fighting there is considered by many Third World countries as state-sponsored terrorism. Our refusal to accept the World Court’s authority in the dispute over mining Nicaraguan harbors has hurt America’s prestige internationally. We no longer have the moral high ground from which to condemn other countries’ aggressive acts agaisnt smaller neighbors. If the President continues current policies we are going to drift into war in Central America. This will be another unpopular war because the American people won’t understand why we are fighting.

JIM SNOWDEN Long Beach The Times is to be congratulated for its Dec. 23 editorial calling for a shift to diplomacy in resolving Nicaragua-U.S. relations. The Reagan Administration’s policy of confrontation towards Nicaragua is leading us down the path to a new Vietnam in Central America.

Fifteen thousand U.S.-financed mercenaries are poised on Nicaragua’s northern border--many trained in Texas and Southern California in violation of U.S. law. According to the Reagan Administration our support of the contras is to prevent arms shipments to El Salvador and to counter Soviet influence in Central Ameria. The contras have admitted that their prime objective has always been the overthrow of the Sandinista government. The Administration knew this at the outset and lied to the American people.

Honduras has been transformed by the United States int oa high-tech support base for U.S. military intervention to prevent a guerrilla victory in El Salvador and especially to topple the Nicaraguan government. Under the guise of military exercises, the United States has transferred vast quantities of military supplies to that country. These transfers are immune to congressional oversight since they are financed directly from Pentagon contingency funds.

In three years of “covert” war U.S.-armed, -trained and -directed contras have killed 8,000 Nicaraguans. This is equivalent to 200,000 to 300,000 U.S. dead each year! Seventy percent of the population of Nicaragua is under the age of 21! Half are under the age of 15. Are we now waging war on children? Are they to be starved and killed by bullets and bombs paid for by U.S. taxpayers?

The contra military experiment has failed. In spite of tragic losses Nicaragua will not surrender. Any attempt to overthrow the Sandinistas through use of either a naval blockade (with its confrontation with Soviet shipping) or actual invasion by U.S. troops would be immensely costly. Lt. Col. John Buchanan (Marine Corps, retired) estimates that such an invasion would require up to 125,000 servicemen for two or three years of combat, leave 3,000 U.S. dead, 15,000 to 20,000 casualties at a cost of $15 to $20 billion. He makes no mention of Nicaraguan losses.

After 20 months of negotiation, the four Contadora nations, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Panama, presented a proposal for peace in Central America. At first the United States accused Nicaragua of insincerity in not having signed Contadora. In September, when Nicaragua offered to sign unconditionally, the United States hastily backed off from serious consideration of the Contadora treaty, calling it inadequate and unverifiable. We are outraged at what this Administration is doing in our name with our tax dollars. It is essential that all people of good will speak out forcefully to stop this unacceptable policy. Intense public pressure on Congress can call a halt to this illegal and immoral policy.

BERNARD WINTER TANJA WINTER La Jolla I wish President Reagan start reading the Los Angeles Times editorial page and stop dreaming. Your Dec. 23 and Jan. 7 editorials are so right on. About $73 million spent on the covert war to overthrow the Nicaraguan governemnt has been a waste, and now he’s asking for more. The Sandinistas have already agreed to sign the peace treaty drawn up by the Contadora group. It’s time for our President to sit down with Daniel Ortega and start negotiating the exports and imports of coffee, sugar, and other necessary goods, and get on with the business of living peacefully with our neighbors.

JOYCE McCLURE Studio City W. A. DeTally’s letter (Dec. 20) ended on a rather sour note. How can he ask us “to support the legal government of Nicaragua--the Sandinistas”? This is like easking Americans to support South Africa’s apartheid regime.

When the Sandinistas came into power they promised a greater distribution of wealth under Marxist theology. The Sandinista party members shop at hard-currency stores, dine at expensive restaurants, receive delicacies that are not shared with the rest of the poor and vacation in Somoza mansions. George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” never had such a good cast of beasts as one has in the Sandinistas. I guess the Sandinistas are the first among equals.

Another reason why I will not support the Sandinistas is that they are oppressive. People are jailed for speaking their mind; farmers are forced to sell their products to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at low prices that hardly make ends meet; people have ration cards taken away if they do not attend Sandinista rallies; independent labor unions are not allowed to form; many people do not attend opposition party rallies because they fear being arrested, and the Sandinistas control much of Nicaragua’s media--with this government in control how can one ask us to support it?

But now the question arrives: How can we change this corrupt, oppressive governemnt? The answer lies not in support of the contras , whose counterrevolution ony leads to more oppression of dissenters. The answer lies in support of moderate opponents of the Sandinistas, such as Arturo Cruz.

Some may say that Cruz is simply an American puppet. This is hardly the truth. Cruz is a viable opponent to the Sandinistas who is popular in his country. Cruz has pledged to give more power to the people, and the United States should support him. We in the Free World should pressure the Sandinistas into allowing Cruz and moderates like him greater political freedom.

We should never support a government such as the Sandinistas or those of Russia or Chile. Anyone who says we should support the Sandinistas is naive. Anyone who says the contras are the answer will only lead Nicaragua into another bloody civil war. The answer lies in the moderates, and support should start now!

BRIAN DOUGLAS HAIG Capo Valley High School One of the first acts of the newly elected Nicaraguan Assembly will be the drafting of a national constitution. This is pretty exciting stuff! (We did it once ourselves, and it has made a difference.)

The opposition forces now seem to have enough independent seats in the Assembly (about 30%) to be assured that the Sandinistas will not have it all their way. Rather than sending armed troops to Nicaragua at this point, would it not be more creative of the United States, to send advisers in constitutional law, policy planning, economics and management to aid and influence the design of this new constitution?

For a fraction of the cost of the strong-arm method we might succeed in influencing the political outcome in Nicaragua and gaining the respect of many Latin American nations--an attribute we do not currently enjoy.

Our insistence that small Latin American nations opt for capitalist rather than Marxist-type governments raises the question of how our attempt to control the internal affairs of Nicaragua differs in principle from the big-stick approach favored by Russia in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Isn’t it time to put down the big stick and pick up the olive branch, to be creative and to use our brain power instead of our muscle power in Nicaragua? I, for one, would rather help write their constitution then their epitaph.

ROBERT J. SCHLESINGER Ph.D. San Diego State University